Learn: Global Warming

The overwhelming majority of scientists now agree that the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide caused by human burning of fossil fuels is intensifying the atmosphere's greenhouse effect and causing global temperatures to rise. Such a shift is alarming considering the consequences it might have: rising sea levels that would flood coastal communities, widespread crop failures, drastic changes in weather patterns, more frequent occurrences of severe weather events, and epidemics resulting from expanded ranges of disease-carrying insects.

Global warming will affect everyone on earth, but the issue is particularly relevant to Texans for two reasons: First, if Texas were an independent nation, it would rank seventh in the world in terms of carbon production, the main human-produced contributor to the greenhouse effect. As such a major contributor to global warming, Texas has the opportunity and the obligation to take action to avert it. Second, Texas stands to lose a great deal from the consequences of climate change. We have already seen an increase in droughts and floods, and several cases of dengue fever, a disease usually confined to the tropics, have appeared in Houston and the Rio Grande valley. Rising sea levels, combined with reduced fresh water flow to the coasts, will endanger fragile coastal estuaries, which are important to the fishing and tourism industries. Texans also should be concerned about the potential effects on agriculture and drinking water supplies if global warming continues unchecked.

SEED recently co-released a report with the World Wildlife Fund and Public Citizen's Texas Office entitled Texas's Global Warming Solutions investigating Texas's role in averting climate change. You can view the press release or
the entire report.
You can also view the press release and
report for Kingpins of Carbon,
a July 1999 co-release with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group about the world's biggest carbon producers. Also see our February 1999 press release "Antiguan Ambassador Tours Texas to Urge Action on Global Warming."

Be sure to stop by our E-Action page to send a fax to Governor Perry asking him to develop a global warming plan for Texas.